Qatar’s national carrier is planning to launch service directly from Doha to Las Vegas, a spokesperson has confirmed.

However, no specific date for the route has been announced, and will depend on aircraft availability among other factors, she told Doha News.

Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker first mentioned the notion of a Las Vegas route this week at the International Air Transport Association (IATA) annual meeting in Dublin.

There, he told reporters, “We are going to go from January direct from Doha to Las Vegas” on a Boeing 777-300ER.

Currently, no Gulf carrier flies directly to Las Vegas.

US expansion

The news comes as Qatar Airways just launched its 10th route into the US, direct from Doha to Atlanta, Georgia.

In some ways, the start of service to the airport has been controversial. Al Baker previously said Qatar Airways was launching the route to “rub salt in the wounds” of American carrier Delta, which has a hub there.

And he criticized Delta as “wicked” after his airline had no gate to park the A380 that flew the inaugural Doha-Atlanta flight. “Old and frail” passengers instead had to disembark via mobile stairs and shuttle buses, he added.

For its part, Delta, which had a much smaller A320 parked in the airport’s only slot large enough for the A380, said it didn’t have time to move around its aircraft.

Thoughts?